Warm.

I must apologize.  Yesterday I got home with zero wits about me, and I was way too tired to pick a good improv from yesterday's arsenal.  I just threw one on here, and it's probably the worst of the group.  Kinda frustrating.  But in the spirit of putting anything and everything out there, maybe I can live with having some super mediocre stuff up there, too.  It's all me, after all.

Today I spent a good chunk of time drugging myself with iTunes U podcasts.  I started out with an hour and a half Philosophy for Beginners lecture from Oxford U, on recommendation from my brother-in-law.  So interesting.  And a very cool part of it is that you can apply so many of those questions to music, and music creation.  Maybe that's silly, but let me ask you:  did a piece (any piece, think of one specific for you,) exist before it was created, or only after?  How could it exist now if it didn't exist then?  What are the musical atoms that had to be put together to form the idea of the piece, and where did they come from?  And how are our concepts formed?  Lots of other questions here, but these are some fun ones to start out with.

I burnt my rice.  Too much damn philosophizing!

Here we go, Day 146: https://ia600808.us.archive.org/0/items/Improv1712/1_7_128_11Pm.mp3

Wherewithall.

It just occurred to me that I still have to do this thing.

Grarrrrrrrrr!

Here we go, Day 145: https://ia600806.us.archive.org/19/items/Improv1612/1_6_123_22Pm.mp3

Fwoop.

I completely just BLANKED on what I was going to write about.  But it is pretty late anyway, and I have a ton of work to do tomorrow morning before my paid work begins.  So let me just leave it at this.  And maybe I can come up with something clever to close with.  Don't hold your breath or anything, though.

Here we go, Day 144: https://ia600804.us.archive.org/28/items/Improv1512/1_5_128_15Pm.mp3

Fat.

It's hard to know, as a westerner, when one should be diving head first into the fat of an animal.

One of my distinct childhood memories, and I mean early on (2 or 3), is of grabbing a fistful of shiny gristle from a well-surveyed platter that had once been full of steak, and giving it a good suck.  Much to my toddling dismay, my hand was struck in revulsion, and I was promptly discouraged from ever enjoying the "lesser" of an animal's bounty.  Legend has it, I had somewhat of a palate for fats: fingerfuls of sour cream, butter, and whipped cream by the bowlful.  (I used to make it just to eat by itself.  True story.)

I once delicately placed, with chopsticks and all, an entire chunk of pure fat in my mouth that was intended to be a grill lubricant.  I was in Thailand, and I had never had what we were eating.  It wasn't gross to me, though I did get  a leery look from my table-mate.  I just didn't know, and was trying to be polite.  Oh well...

Tonight is more clear, though.  The ribbons of succulent, buttery, and yes, salty beauty on this particular prosciutto is not to be wasted.  I could savor it by the yard.  Anyone who trims it would be performing sacrilege.

Here we go, Day 143: https://ia600804.us.archive.org/5/items/Improv1412/1_4_127_48Pm.mp3

Don't even get me started on cheeses.  Love of fats and cheeses, pigs feet, etc. (bar foods of yore, really): definitely a legacy passed down from dear old dad.

Alas... Manhattan.

The nights get later and later, don't they??

I thought it was just the tilt of the earth in relation to the sun... the axis and all.

But in reality, the late hour still shows the same number, summer or not.

Besame mucho...

Here we go, Day 142: https://ia700803.us.archive.org/3/items/Improv1312/1_3_128_33Pm.mp3

A "theme" and variations.  I finally found/created one that is semi worth posting... a short, tasty little thing.

If I could see stars in Manhattan, I would be pretty excited to be up at this time, watching a meteor shower.  Alas... Manhattan.

Ondine.

One happiness for today: I finally worked all the way through Ondine, from beginning to end, for the first time.  Man, there are a lot of notes in that piece.  The biggest difficulty for me were the two measures where every half beat changes from 7 against 5 to 6 against 7 to 5 against 6, and so forth, with complicated arpeggiations of different chords, also at every half beat.  Drives me CRAZY!  I'm a terrible sight-reader to begin with, which only added to my frustration.

But, after a long while, I can finally do it!!  Every time I hear this piece, or play any part of it, I feel so privileged to be experiencing it.  What a masterpiece!


I haven't done this for a while, but I'm gonna put two improvs today.  These were the only two I did, but there's something about each of them that I really like.  I hope I can start expanding my language, though... if not today, maybe tomorrow.

Here we go, Day 141: https://ia600804.us.archive.org/2/items/Improv1212/1_2_126_27Pm.mp3
and Day 141, Part 2: https://ia700808.us.archive.org/34/items/Improv21212/1_2_126_33Pm.mp3

Altruism.

Do you ever stop to think about the experiences you are having in the moment you are having them?  And wonder why you are meeting certain people?

What is life about for you?  Surely it's not just the drudgery of day to day existence.

When I reflect on the impact that people have on me and on my life, I'm blown away with the importance and gravity of those connections.  It is amazing to me how altruistic humans are, and how we can do it with such selflessness.

Happy new year.

Here we go, Day 140: https://ia600809.us.archive.org/28/items/Improv1112/1_1_127_34Pm.mp3